In a Chinese restaurant in Beijing, customers were asked to stand on scales and scan their data into an app that recommended food choices based on their weight and the dishes’ calorific value. Signs were displayed in the restaurant reading, “Be thrifty and diligent; promote empty plates.” Recommending food choices for customers should not be allowed. What someone decides to eat is none of your business and judging an individual’s health by looking at their body is inaccurate, disrespectful and dehumanising.
Standing on a scale remains a place of trauma for all people, especially womxm. Womxm are continuously trying to rearrange their bodies for society and the pressure is becoming unbearable. Expectations and beauty standards that are being established in our society are breaking womxm down and are overlooking body shaming. Body shaming is a vicious cycle, basically bullying. What gives you the right to criticise and make mockery of some else’s appearance? People are not objects! Stop studying people and coming up with immoral conclusions. The media also has a big role in dictating body image; there is a great lack of representation in the media space, although a strong movement of body positivity is trying to oppose this. People are unsettled about how they look because they are not seeing their bodies validated in public spaces. This gives them reason to hide and not embrace their appearances.
Feeling the urge to change your appearance usually comes from the root of self-hate and discrimination. Not being able to love yourself affects mental and emotional health very negatively. Both mental and emotional health are vital as they promote productivity and effectiveness in any activities we participate in; so if an individual lacks stability in both areas this could only lead to self-destruction.
We are womxm and we should be proud of who we are, no one should tell us how to feel about ourselves, but us. We have fat rolls, stretch marks, dark inner thighs, small boobs, big boobs, small bums, big bums, pot bellies, hairy legs, eating disorders and that’s fine. We are human, we are the creators of life; the lifeline of this human race.
Tip: From today, I want you to be more in love with yourself than you were yesterday, look at those stretch marks and fat rolls, and confess love.
